GTT

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I expected to get 3 more needle pokes, I was wrong. It turned out to be 4.

Got in to the laboratory really early and started off with a vial of blood drawn from my right arm for my baseline. I was given a small bottle with 100g of glucose to drink and the countdown started, this was hour 0.

Hour 1 - drew blood from left arm.

Hour 2 - drew blood from right arm again.

Hour 3 - drew blood from left arm.

I still have a lot of puncture wounds in both arms. Keep your fingers crossed and pray for me and Swe-cha, we don't want to have to deal with the complications of gestational diabetes.

GST - Fail

I got poked around quite a bit during my pre-natal appointment today due to a Glucose Screen Test that I had to take and some blood that had to be drawn and I'm going to get poked 3 more times tomorrow.

The bad news is that I failed today's Glucose Screen Test - after going hungry and thirsty for a few hours (you pregnant ladies out there would understand how big of a deal this is for me) before the actual test.

The not-so-bad news (in a crab mentality sort of way) is that the Doc told me that her patients these past 2 weeks have ALL failed their glucose screen tests. Most of these patients who failed their GST passed their GTT. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed and am hoping for the best.

The best news I've heard all day is that my 3 hour Glucose Tolerance Test has been scheduled for early morning tomorrow - this is good news because at least the fasting part shouldn't be that much of a hardship for me since I can do that while I sleep.

Childbirth Classes 1/4

Hubby and I attended our first session (out of 4) of childbirth classes at the hospital today. We learned and picked up quite a few tips from the instructor, Arlene, and we found that the 3 hrs went by quickly.

Thankfully, we did have frequent breaks and I find myself needing to go to the ladies' room more and more often these days. *sigh*

Swe-cha made his presence known all throughout the class, he was probably enjoying the cookies that I was munching on.

Decluttering

We spent the weekend clearing up and making room for the baby. Hubby did the all the grunt work and I took on a supervisory role *smile*.

We took boxes out, going through papers that were haphazardly "filed" (my quickie filing method) in plastic bags and shoved into the cabinets. Not-so-important documents were scanned and then shredded.

Huge plastic containers that were labeled "misc" were opened and revealed tons and tons of clothes. After that first round of cleaning that I did the last time which yielded 3 huge bags of shirts, 1 big bag of pants and several pairs of shoes, I didn't think that I had any more but I was wrong. But then again, I hadn't gotten rid of a single piece of clothing or footwear since 2002, there's bound to be a lot.

And oh, we did clear up 2/3 of a chest of plastic drawers and 2/3 of a dresser.

Eventually, when we've set aside bags of trash and clothes I'd like to keep have been put back neatly into containers and we've gotten the piles of clothes to be donated down to this point, I decided to call it quits and asked to watch TV instead.

I'll (meaning hubby and me) tackle this over the next weekend.

Po Tai 2

Note: Had the 2nd batch of Po Tai herbal meds today.

and then it hit me...

Hubby and I received a coupon in the mail for a $20 gift card if you sign up for a baby registry. So, we dropped by Target today to start one. After all, $20 is a very nice excuse to drop by Target.

As I was rummaging through the treasures in Target's goody bag, I found a sample for Pamper's newborn diaper. I measured it against my hand and realized that it's no bigger than my palm.

Thankfully, we were already seated in the car because I started tearing up. Suddenly, it hit me that it's real! We ARE having a baby. A tiny baby whose butt will fit in (or is probably smaller than) that newborn-sized diaper.

Cord Blood Banking - check

We've been doing the research for 2 months now and we finally settled the cord-blood-banking question.

Do we bank Swe-Cha's cord blood ? YES!

Where to bank ? This was the hardest to answer. We checked out the services being offered by Viacord, LifebankUSA and CBR. We eventually narrowed down our choices to either LifebankUSA or CBR - all 3 were in the same price range but the latter two were around $200 cheaper than the first.

We had been taking our time because we weren't due till December yet... and then I found another company who offered me a very competitive price and was told that the promotion would be up by yesterday. After some research and getting more of our questions answered, both hubby and I were satisfied and we signed up.

One down.

22 weeks 6 days

Swe-Cha has gotten more and more active these days. It used to be that I would only feel him move when I lie down on my left side, but last night, he would move & kick when I lie down on my right side too.

I'm not exactly well-versed in baby-kick interpretation yet, so I cannot say if Swe-Cha's movements mean that he's comfortable or the other way around. In any case, the only sleeping position I can assume now without him squirming around in my tummy is on my back. But even then, I sometimes have a hard time breathing, depending on Swe-Cha's position.

It occurred to me that we only have around 4 months to go and we have not really bought anything for our baby yet - not that I'm in a hurry to spend, but we really should start going around the baby stores to see what our options are.

We've already registered for childbirth classes and I still need to choose the sessions for childcare & breastfeeding classes that hubby and I can attend. Thankfully, childcare & breastfeeding classes are only 1 session each so we only need to free up one day in a weekend for each.